First, the celebrity death department has two to report on. Regarding Don Ho, one can only hope they plan to bury his ukulele with him. In fact, one can only hope they plan to bury all ukuleles with him.
As for Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., one should think of all the mud that never got a chance to stand up and look around for a while. So it goes.
I spent the week on a particularly exhausting business trip. Between the only non-stop getting in at 9:30 p.m. (which is the next day by my body clock) and the wait for the rental car shuttle, the travel alone is tiring. I may know the way to San Jose, but I, apparently, don't know the way to my hotel. I managed to drive three or so miles in the wrong direction when I got off 880. I did, eventually, find my way and then managed to circle the entire Great Mall of the Bay Area before finding the street the Courtyard by Marriott is on. Once I knew where it was, I was fine the rest of the time.
Well, except for meeting my brother for dinner on Wednesday night, where I again managed to circle the entire Great Mall of the Bay Area in order to find the restaurant we were meeting at. I am now convinced that all sets of directions involving Milpitas should simply say ":circle the Great Mall of the Bay Area aimlessly." I had a nice chat with Elliot over dinner. Afterwards, we walked around the mall, which is remarkable only for its lack of anything I'd consider buying. The most amazing thing there is a kiosk called "crab world." This has a large tank with crabs and brightly colored plastic shells for them to hide in. You can buy smaller tanks and can presumably also buy crabs and shells, though I'm not sure why one would want to. Way weird.
I should also mention that I did manage to get to my favorite restaurant in the area. Namely, The Banana Leaf. And I am pleased to report that the melaka eggplant is as delicious as ever.
My biggest frustration of the trip was that my company had shut off remote access due to a security issue. I suppose bringing my laptop along wasn't a complete waste, since I used it to check my home email and the weather and such. It's probably just as well, given how late my meetings ran. But I would have liked to have kept up on email to some extent. Instead, I went over to my company office when I got back and spent an hour or so partially catching up.
As for the weekend, I was too tired to do much of anything. I got a few errands run, but mostly I napped and read. I just have to repeat my mantra ("frequent flyer miles, frequent flyer miles") a few hundred more times and I'll be recovered.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel